Pato O’Ward Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer LONG BEACH, Calif. – After 15 rounds of hard fought racing, the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series championship trail will end this Sunday. Destination? Long Beach – the site of the finale and the sports’ most prestigious street race. A tremendous amount of storylines will be settled. One of the major headlines is indeed who’ll be hoisting the Astor Cup after Sunday’s finale. One man who controls his destiny is championship leader Alex Palou. The Chip Ganassi Racing competitor who entered the sport last year as aRead More

By INDYCAR MONTEREY, Calif. – Colton Herta continued his family’s success at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with a dominant victory Sunday in the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, while Alex Palou marched closer and closer to an even bigger win. Herta earned his second victory this season and fifth career victory, beating Palou’s No. 10 NTT Data Honda to the finish by 1.9747 seconds. NTT P1 Award winner Herta led 91 of the 95 laps in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. LINK: Official Results California native Herta also won this eventRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor And then there were three. After the checkered flag waved on Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, it became official that the battle for the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series championship will come down to three drivers – Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward, and Josef Newgarden. Palou retook the points lead last weekend with his victory in Portland and Sunday at Laguna Seca did exactly what he had to do in order to maintain his position atop the standings, finishing second on theRead More

MONTEREY, Calif. – Colton Herta won the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey from the pole in 2019, the last time this NTT INDYCAR SERIES event took place at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He’s halfway toward that dominant equation again at the track that could be nicknamed “Herta House.” LINK: Qualifying Results Herta earned the NTT P1 Award on Saturday with a top lap of 1 minute, 10.7994 seconds during the Firestone Fast Six in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian. It was his seventh career pole andRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer PORTLAND, Ore. – No driver from Mexico has ever led the NTT IndyCar Series championship this deep into the season. Not even Adrian Fernandez 21 years ago when he was in the title mix as he never led the championship trail. That all changed last month at Gateway when Pato O’Ward took the points lead away from Alex Palou. O’Ward finished second while Palou was collected in a multi-car accident. With just three rounds remaining, the gap between them is 10 points heading into the GrandRead More

By INDYCAR MADISON, Ill. – Josef Newgarden earned his second victory of the season by winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway in a race that shuffled the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship deck. Newgarden drove his No. 2 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by 0.5397 of a second over Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP. O’Ward didn’t enter Victory Lane, but he also was a big winner of the night by taking the championship lead by 10Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Pato O’Ward came into Saturday night’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway 21 points in arrears of the points lead, but after a mid-race crash collected his championship rivals, he will be leaving with the points lead firmly in hand. The 22-year-old pilot of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet kept his nose clean throughout the night, bringing home a runner-up result to give him a 10-point advantage heading into the final three-race stretch of the 2021 NTT IndyCar SeriesRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – It’s not the typical oval weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the series takes on the track’s infield road course for the first time. After a mostly incident-free practice session Saturday morning, led by Martin Truex, Jr. with a lap of 1 minute, 29.577 seconds the question was posed to a number of drivers to see what they thought of racing on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile infield road course. Naturally, Truex had nothing but positive things to say about theRead More

By INDYCAR INDIANAPOLIS – Will Power finally got his first victory of the 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season on a track he has mastered like no other. Power drove the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet to victory in the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix on Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, his fifth career win on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile layout that debuted in 2014. LINKS: Official Results It was the 40th career INDYCAR SERIES victory for Power, who broke a tie with four-time Indianapolis 500 winnerRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor INDIANAPOLIS – With the clock down to mere seconds and a pole position at Indianapolis on the line, Pato O’Ward’s black and orange Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet streaked across the line, sending the No. 5 to the top of the board and securing him the pole for the third time this season. After a short dispute by outside pole sitter Will Power’s team, O’Ward’s lap of 1 minute, 10.714 seconds became official and the celebrations for driver and team could begin in earnest. “It’s good, man,”Read More